


Give Me Your Hands

by anunnecessaryinsult



Category: Ackley Bridge (TV)
Genre: (sort of maybe I don't know), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cory is soft and confused, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-23 01:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15594951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anunnecessaryinsult/pseuds/anunnecessaryinsult
Summary: An imagining of what might happen in 2x10.After Hayley's birthday party and making a fool of himself at Cory's house the morning after, Naveed flees. Cory comes to find him and shares a secret about himself.





	Give Me Your Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Title from A Midsummer's Night Dream: 
> 
> Give me your hands if we be friends,  
>  And Robin shall restore amends.
> 
> \- Puck (Act 5, Scene 1)

The cold wet of the morning grass seeps through Naveed's two-day-old uniform, yet he can hardly bring himself to care. He's never been hungover before - never even had a drink 'til he changed schools to Ackley Bridge - and now he's vowing never to drink again. Not if it feels this awful. He feels sick to his stomach, his pulse pounding loudly in his ears, the whole world to bright. He doesn't want to move - not now, not ever again - but he has nowhere to go anyway. Not home, to his parents who know everything (or close enough anyway). Not to anywhere he'd ever see Cory again. He couldn't face it, after what a fool he just made of himself. How could he be such an idiot - to think Cory cared about a stupid boy like him, to think that he was special?

 

He could go back to Nasreen's, where he'd stayed last night passed out drunk on her floor, he decided. But not yet. Now, he just wanted to wait on this hill until it swallowed him up, or death took over, whichever came first.

 

Naveed lay there trying (and failing) to empty his thoughts for who-knows-how-long. His life was over, he knew it. His parents would never understand or accept him. They'd try and turn him into someone else. A son they could be proud of. He had just started to really like his life too - yeah, he'd still been pretending but he'd been more himself there than he'd ever been in his life. He didn't need to be on the rugby team or get loads of girls or pretend to be dumber than he was to have friends. They liked him, anyway. He made them laugh. They all tried out for the play, didn't ridicule him for wanting to. Would they have, without Cory doing so first though? And Naveed had lost Cory now, must have done with what a tit he made of himself this morning. Cory would think he was more of an idiot than he already did - a lovesick stalker who followed him around.

 

A wave of sickness accompanied his thoughts. He tried not to think of the myriad of ways his life was eternally over. Instead, he let the sun warm him until he felt the grass drying underneath him. Focused on the breeze that whipped through his shirt. Could he stay here forever? Maybe, he hoped.

 

"Nav?"

 

Every inch of Naveed tenses and his stomach churned. No way, no way, no way.

 

"Naveed?"

 

That voice was soft like Naveed had rarely heard, stripped of its brashness and confidence but still unmistakable. Reluctantly, slowly, he opened his eyes. At first the clear blue of the horizon blinds him but when his eyes adjust, Cory Wilson's tall, solid form strikes out on the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds.

 

Cory had found him. Cory was here.

 

"What do you want?" The words croak out of him, the reproach clear. He turns his head away, unable to look at him. Naveed can feel the anger bubbling up inside of him. He hates Cory, hates how he made him feel, hates that he never knew where he stood. He wishes he'd never met him. Never known how happy he could be: having friends and doing the things that made him happy, having Cory in his life. He wishes it had all never happened, so he wouldn't know the pain of it all being ripped away.

 

"I want - I wanted to find you."

 

"Why?"

 

"Make sure you're okay."  The words are low but clear and hit Naveed with a _whoosh_. What does Cory care how he feels?

 

"I'm fine."

 

It's a lie and they both know it.

 

He can hear Cory shuffling but he still can't bear to look at him. "Good - that's good."

 

"I just want to be by myself for a bit," Naveed tells him.

 

"Oh, okay," Cory says, still in that soft voice he rarely used. It reminds Naveed of when they were auditioning for the play. The memory sets his skin ablaze. _Could you kiss a girl?_

 

Cory doesn't leave. "I just wanted to... say sorry, I guess."

 

Naveed almost laughs. "You guess? For what?"

 

For last night and all the things Cory said making him think there was a chance: _you're wonderful, there's nobody else like you, stay with me_? Or this morning, when Naveed realised he got it all wrong?

 

"For being a prick."

 

His bluntness would make Naveed laugh on any other day. Now, it just makes him angry again. "Go away, Cory," he says, struggling to stand. He'll leave, he'll run away if Cory won't. It's his heart that's been trampled on, that can't take it.

 

The anger threatens to spill out and suddenly it's not his heart in his throat, it's his stomach and all its contents from last night. He's throwing up, spewing all over the grass, as if he couldn't be any more embarrassed, couldn't look more pathetic.

 

Cory's solid hands touch him through his thin school shirt, rubbing his back, murmuring distantly. _It's okay, I'm so sorry, you'll be okay, please don't hate me._

 

It stops eventually, the wracking of his body and Naveed stands, shaky, and moves out of Cory's touch. "Sorry," he mumbles, death in his mouth. He wipes his stinging eyes with the cuff of his shirt.

 

" _I'm_ sorry," Cory says again and Naveed believes him. Cory'd do a lot of things but he wouldn't lie. "Will you talk to me? Please."

 

Naveed nods and looks Cory full in the face for the first time, the same feeling he gets every time he looks at him. A skipped beat of his heart, a short breath.

 

Cory turns, walks down the hill to the path and Naveed walks alongside him until they reach a bench. Cory sits and Naveed sits next to him. Waits for Cory to speak, lets him lead, as always.

 

"When I was a kid, nine or ten or summat, I went to this footie camp and I made this mate, his name were Ryan and I really liked him. He weren't from round 'ere, he was staying with his grandparents for the summer. I wouldn't shut up about him at home, just banged on about how funny he were and all the things we did. We just used to mess about and then one day there were a whole group of us playin' dares and that and all the girls kept picking me to kiss and Ryan didn't get pick not once. Later, he were upset and just wanted to know what it were like so we -" Cory breaks off with a ragged breath but Naveed fills in the gap. He puts a hand on Cory's shoulder and squeezes.

 

Cory continues. "My mum, she always used to ask me about him and I told her about what happened and she asked if I liked it, liked it more than the girls, and I said - I dunno if she told me dad or he heard us or what but they had a big fight. He said she were putting ideas in my head, making a big deal out of nothing. That I'd feel different when I was older. They always used to fight and then they'd make up 'til the next time but this was different. They started fighting and they didn't stop, not for months. School started and Ryan went back to his parents' but they just kept fighting. She used to tell me, 'don't be anything like your dad'. She told me that once when I was in bed and then the next day I came back from school and she were gone. Never saw her again." He swallows, hard. "Dad, he had so much to do: looking after us, working. I just wanted to be a good son so it'd be easier for him to be a good dad. Be the son he wanted. But I mess everything up: with my dad, with Jordan, with Candace and the baby, with rugby. I mess it all up." Cory wipes his eyes and turns to him, gives him a fierce look. "Last night, I messed up okay? And I'm sorry but I don't know how to make it better."

 

Naveed wants to kiss him then. Press their lips together, their faces wet where they've both been crying. Hold him tight and keep him close.

 

He doesn't though. Just slides his hand down from Cory's shoulder, along his arm, to rest atop the tight fist of Cory’s hand. He hears Cory breathe out and feels the tension leave just a little. "It's okay. You haven't - you haven't messed it up, not with me."

 

Cory just laughs, disbelieving.

 

"You haven't," Naveed insists. It's true; Naveed had forgiven Cory already. From the moment he'd appeared above him, saying he'd come to find him. Naveed would feel pathetic but he knows it's not just him. Cory had broken Riz's neck and Riz has probably forgiven him before he even hit the floor. Nobody stayed mad at Cory, no matter what he did. A smile, a clap on the back, an elbow in the side. Anything could be forgotten under Cory's attentions. What chance did Naveed stand to not fall for this boy's spell? "I know what it's like to want to be the child your parents want. To do whatever it takes to keep them happy even if it's not what you want. To deny bits of yourself." He swallows and squeezes Cory's hand. "You know, though, that nothing that happened with them was your fault, don't you? Your mum leaving and that, everything with your dad. That's on _them_ , not you."

 

Cory doesn't say anything just looks out over the hills, studies the tops of the houses that make up Ackley Bridge. Somewhere out there are both their homes and whatever awaits them there. Naveed knows Cory doesn't believe him, will carry the blame on his broad shoulders, but Naveed vows to tell him every day, repeat the words over and over until he believes him.

 

"I didn't even get it at first, what it was I'd done that was wrong," Cory throws him an apologetic look. "Well, not wrong but what it was that made me dad mad. He kept saying I'd feel different when I was older, that I was too young to know what I want. I still didn't really know but then the next summer, Ryan came to stay again and I didn't do football camp that year but I saw him in the park and I just ignored him and then I never saw him again. I just knew it would make my dad mad, even if I didn't know why. Then I got older and started going with girls and that and I never really thought about it again, not until..." Cory breaks off.

 

 _Not until me_ , Naveed thinks.

 

They lapse into silence again and Naveed searches for something to say, something to reassure. "I always knew that I was gay. Since I was really little. I was just different to everyone else. But it doesn't have to be that simple for everyone, you know? You're allowed to question it."

 

"That day in the changing room, it just bought it all back. I just _felt_ so much it hurt and I've never - it feels good with girls, going with them, having sex with them. And I like making them want me, chatting them up and that. If they say yeah, it feels good like scoring a goal in a match does but if they say no, it doesn't hurt. I'm not even disappointed, really. It's just like -" he shrugs. "I don't _care_. And once I've been with 'em, I don't want more. I don't want to be their boyfriend, I'm not even that bothered about seeing them again. I don't want _this_ ," Cory turns over his hand underneath Naveed's own and interlocks their fingers. It's warm and firm and right. "You're the only one I want to do this with. I don't know what it means but..."

 

Naveed does kiss him then. Soft and accepting. He doesn't need promises from Cory. Doesn't need him waltzing into school on Monday declaring him his boyfriend. He just needs him near. When he's with Cory, he feels like he can conquer anything, even the ruins that is his life right now.

 

He pulls away slowly but Cory chases his lips, kisses him again.

 

Later, they'll walk along the path together until they have to go their separate ways. There's time enough to work it all out: with themselves, with each other, with everyone else.

 

Before they part, Cory gives him his hoody. It smells of him, envelopes Naveed in warmth.

 

He wears it when he faces his parents and feels Cory with him there. They’ll face the rest of it too. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> I have [a tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/badlydrawnlips) I never use but maybe want to start to? Maybe see you in the Ackley Bridge tag? xx


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